Let the planting begin!

My friend Tomomi now lives with her in-laws, the Takahashi family. So she not only gets to live in a HUGE, new house; she also lives on a farm of sorts! A Japanese rice farm. Please note that she is a city gurl, and so when I came to visit her new place I insisted on getting the full tour...which happened to be the first time she explored her own backyard. I harvested rice back in the early autumn last year...so this spring I wanted to also learn the basics of planting rice. Here is where it begins!!

The greenhouses are being prepared for the seedlings. The soil trays are ready to have the seeds planted. Those maggot-looking things are the rice seeds that are being heated in an "incubator" to expedite their ripening. They are planting 3 types of rice this year, hence the 3 different colored bags. Can you imagine how many seedlings will come from 60 bags of that size?? No...well me either, but time will tell!!

And this is one of the BIGGEST doggies I've ever seen. You realllly can't tell by the pictures, but Hana-chan ("little flower") is a "REALLY BIG flower" dog.

"I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. The man who plants and the man who waters have one purpose, and each will be rewarded according to his own labor." ~1 Corinthians 3:6-8